I've been using my de-activated Blackberry Torch 2 as my MP3 player when I purchased my Note 2.

It actually is very nice (the physical keyboard to look up songs on the go is perfect when I'm working out when I want to mix up my playlist. Also great when I'm driving and don't want to look at the screen to play a song I want, can just type it in).

The headphone jack died on my Torch 2, so I've been using Bluetooth HP and in my car, but the phone is dying itself. I can play songs for an hour and when I turn the phone back on from standby it crashes.

With that, I'm looking for a new non-ipod mp3 player. I probably would've gotten an Ipod Touch but whenever I sync those to my Pioneer Dash via bluetooth, it doesn't transmit the name of the song and information on my dash LCD while every android/blackberry phone works like a charm.

Samsung Galaxy Player I noticed a few years ago but I didn't have a need for it. Now that I do, I noticed it's no longer in production so have to buy refurb or 2nd hand off ebay.

My question is, is the OS upgradeable? Also, I'll still be using my bluetooth headphones and using it for bluetooth in the car as well so I'm not worried about a worn down headphone jack.

Unfortunately there has never been updates on the OS from Samsung.
I have used mine on a daily basis for three years and it is finally getting laggy and difficult but has been an AWESOME all -around device. I have used it alongside a dumbphone. It does everything a smartphone would do except for make calls. I am on a very limited budget so this approach saves me about $60/ month... no data plan.

I really don't know what I'm going to replace it with. There's really nothing on the market that does this. Once you get into non -phone tablets they are all 7" and larger, which means it's not going to fit in a pocket as a daily carry. I see there's another thread here so I'll go over and check that out.

The question to me would be is it worth buying a refurb to root it? There's a number of no contract phones out now that weren't available when the Galaxy Players were introduced. I'd get one, not activate, put it in airplane mode and use it like that. In fact that's just what I've done and it's working quite well for me.

I needed up a smartphone with full connectivity in an emergency and picked up a Samsung Galaxy Rush. It runs JB 4.1.2 without rooting it. I activated it for a month then let the plan lapse. It was working as a media player with wifi connectivity before I activated it. If I had never activated it it would have only cost me the purchase price and worked the same.

Since then i see other phones with better screens, processors, battery life and memory that cost the same or less on sale regularly. When I check local ads like craigslist I see any number of people with phones that were high spec a year ago that are getting rid of them because they've upgraded.

I have a SGP 4.0 and like it a lot. I still suggest you explore a no contract or unlocked smartphone as an alternative. At this time I think they're a better value than a SGP.

The one drawback that might be a issue is that most of them have smaller internal storage for apps and most often apps can't be moved to the external card. If you need a number of large apps that might be a problem. If you want it primarily as a media player I'd think you should be able to get just about any media apps you want without running out of space.

Well I think you're still going to be struggling more and more with a device that has three or four year old specs. It's just going to be increasingly tough to keep up to date with apps that are now being written for KK.

I also think that the solution is in a smartphone, but if you're really into music, you are going to be limited by the audio chipset (DAC) in the phone. I bet that there are very few manufacturers that are investing mush energy into good DAC chipsets on phones. Typical users are going to be listening to their Metalica or Kenny G or Billy Joel collection, or will be listening to Spotify or Pandora in the background. Anything barely adequate will keep them happy.
I noticed the decrease in musical quality when I moved rom the Sansa Fuze mp3 player to the SGP.
And I've never even seen reviews of smartphones that mention audio quality.

But, that being said, in general, smartphones are more expensive than a SGP. So if you're looking for very good specs, 5" or better hi-res screen, and something that's going to be good for another three years, you're probably looking at a Samsung Galaxy S4 or the Note 3, HTC One, Nexus, or the like.

Right off the bat you can eliminate the Nexus line and the HTC One because they have no external microSD. A(although the bastidges put a microSD slot on the Chinese and Japanese market HTC One phones!...think Google muscled them into NOT putting it on the USA phones?) ...and they only ship with 16 or 32 gB of on-board memory. What the heck?! At least most phones are heading in the plus 5" range. But, I also do not want to do without stereo speakers. A brilliant idea (!) is to put them on the front- facing the user. HTC did this on the ONE but so far nobody else has. Well, I guess Google did put stereo speakers on the Nexus 7 tablet, at each end, but that device is 7.8" x 4.7"...WAY too big to carry around in a pocket. MAYBE if they didn't put those huge bezels around them...

And similarly sized Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 has stereo speakers but they put them BOTH at ONE END! So obviously when you're watching Netflix, no stereo for you! The Note 3 has only the one dumb speaker still on the back. Not great.

Even if you go for a Note 3 or HTC used with bad ESN only to be used with wifi, you're still into $400!

Blu, a florida-based company making their own phones for third and second world markets, produces it's first "high-end " phone with a 5" 1080 display. Called the "Pure" and running JB 4.2. Processor is quad core but at 1.5 gHz is not world class at all, and I cannot see if there's a microSD on board. Presumably not. 32 gb memory and 2 gigs of RAM, amazingly enough. 13 mp camera, with flash and image stabilization. Battery is short at 2000maH. Skin is supposed to be clunky and we don't know if a cyanogen mod is going to run here. And we don't really know how these will hold up. Also, if you ever run it as a phone, there's no LTE. But, $350 new but on amazon seller for $330 plus shipping.
Rumors abound but the new HTC One 2 (really?) will be announced at WMC in February. supposed to be 5", WITH microSD this time (I can only hope) and still sporting front-facing, good-sounding speakers. But, that is going to be a pricy little sucker if the strategy from the first ONE holds. On the other hand, since they failed so miserably at trying to take marketshare from Samsung and Apple with this, maybe they've (hopefully) got a new strategy this time around. Making sure that they don't have schedule problems and come out two months behind releases by A and S will certainly help. And a lower price point will certainly help.

Just curious, how much do the internal specs matter when it comes to bluetooth streaming audio quality?

I've eliminated cords altogether for music playing TBH.

I used to use the cassette to 2.5mm headphone jack for years instead of burning hundreds of CD's. Finally my headphone jack wore out on my blackberry torch 2 so I went and bought a really nice pioneer in-dash to use bluetooth streaming audio. It works flawless and the sound quality is eons better.

I only have high bit rate 320 cbr or 256VBR mp3's until FLAC can play on my pioneer dash. The transition from the cassette to 2.5 to bluetooth was very noticeable.

I also got rid of wired headphones that would bother me because it was always hard to find a nice pair of ear buds for the gym, and I didn't want to wear any bulky high end ones, so I settled for Motorola S9 and now S11-HD headphones. Best bluetooth earphones I've used for the gym.

I've played bluetooth audio from my Note 2 and Blackberry Torch and I honestly couldn't notice anything in the car at the same settings. I also had my dad's ipad and played it and didn't notice anything. Same thing for the Sony sound bar I bought him.

Kind of ironice since this is ABIpod site, but I was strongly considering getting an Ipod Touch because of bluetooth. I won't be using the headphone jack, just the bluetooth headphones or in the car. I shouldn't notice a problem with audio quality should I?